My View From Beyond the Gates: It’s a Huge Responsibility Loving Someone

Love. Anger. Sadness. Jealousy. Lies. Secrets. Betrayal. No, they’re not the new deadly sins. But they some of the things the residents of Fairmont Crest are dealing with. Read all about it in, It’s a Huge Responsibility Loving Someone: A Beyond the Gates commentary by Soap Central founder Dan J Kroll for the week ending November 7, 2025.

They say it’s not easy being green. It’s also not easy being in love. As Andre Richardson said this week on Beyond the Gates, loving someone is a huge responsibility.

What started off as a friends with benefits situation seems to becoming something more for Andre and Dani Dupree. Yes, they still are having relations like a pair of sexy bunnies, but the couple is also now showing genuine concern for each other’s wants and needs.

On the other side of the coin, Ashley Morgan has been caring for her husband-to-be Derek Baldwin. But their future together now seems uncertain thanks to a secret and Ashley declaring her feelings for another man… feelings that were probably the reason that Derek had a secret in the first place.

There is perhaps no more complicated relationship in the history of life than the one that Joey Armstrong and Vanessa McBride are involved in at the moment. Woman cheats on her husband. Woman falls in love with the other man. The other man has the woman’s husband killed. Woman takes over the other man’s high-priced escort service. The other man, who orders hits over breakfast, has a soft side for men of a certain age. I mean, it’s practically a Hallmark movie!

It’s not just romantic love that challenging. There is perhaps no greater responsibility than care for and raising a child. Martin Richardson obviously loves his kids more than life itself… he just has a funny way of showing it. Okay, maybe it’s not exactly a funny way. It’s more of an angry way. That led Samantha to say something that can never be unheard.

And that’s probably where this week’s column should start.

$#!* Samantha Says

If you read last week’s column, you’ll know that Samantha’s couch encounter with Nathan made me really glad that I am not a parent. After this week, I’m not sure that I can be trusted around other people’s children. I just want to wrap them all in bubble wrap and hide them away in the Martin family attic (IYKYK — and bonus points if you really do know) so that nothing bad will happen to them.

Martin has some serious anger issues that seem to be undiagnosed. I would think that Nicole would pick up on it, but it’s possible that Martin manages to keep things in check when she’s around.

Martin is upset about what could have happened with Samantha. I understand that. I also understand that he is rightfully, in my opinion, angry that Kat was talking about sex while in earshot of impressionable Samantha. Heck, I even cut Martin some slack for the way he treated Smitty in the aftermath of the encounter with KKKenneth and his brother.

But when you lump all of those things together with the way Martin shoved Ted on the night of the anniversary debacle, it’s clear to me that Martin needs help and everyone around him his failing him.

Martin’s pledge to not make decisions without talking to Smitty lasted all of 3.2 seconds. As I said, I understand that he’s mad with the way that Kat has handled herself around Samantha. I don’t know that pulling Samantha out of her job with ChelseaKat was the best reaction. There surely has to be some other solution between all and nothing.

Another thing, it really, really rubbed me the wrong way that Martin was chowing down on some sort of snack as he casually dropped the news that he’d unilaterally made the decision to yank Samantha away from ChelseaKat.

There have been a lot of memorable moments in the last eight-plus months of Beyond the Gates, but there has been only one moment that has made me say aloud, “Wow.” In a scene that was brilliantly directed, well written, and incredible acted, after learning that her Pops had ended her career with ChelseaKat, Samantha headed for the front door of the townhouse. She stopped and stared icily back at Martin telling him, “I hate you.” That cold stare could give General Hospital’s Ice Princess weather machine a run for its money.

But Samantha wasn’t done.

“God, I wish you would have just left me where I was. Then maybe I’d be happy somewhere else,” she added.

This easily could have been directed or acted as typical, hysterical teenager screaming. That would have been a huge mistake. Instead, Najah Jackson standing still and delivering the line in a tone somewhere between anger and heartbreak was absolute perfection. It was her strongest performance to date and one of the best scenes of the year.

None of the Andre Messes. All of the Andre Fun.

Remember a few weeks ago when Bill’s private investigator, Keegan, tried to convince us, er, Bill that Andre was hiding some deep, dark secret? He reasoned that because there was a few-year gap in Andre being photographed, Andre must be hiding something. At first Bill pushed back at the claims, but the private eye got Bill to reconsider. The Beyond the Gates paired that with Andre weirdly refusing to be part of a Forrester campaign with Dani. That was enough to have the Internet do what it does best: create conspiracy theories.

This week, though, Andre reconsidered taking part in the photo shoot, then he un-reconsidered, before ultimately agreeing to take part.

Like another of my favorite characters, Vanessa McBride, we were initially led to believe that Andre was just someone who was fun to look at. He was a skilled celebrity photographer with a love-‘em-and-leave-‘em playbook. I mean, even Andre’s family was sort of in on the joke that Andre didn’t like to be tied down to just one woman.

That characterization was turned upside-down this week when Andre talked about losing his parents in a plane crash. We learned that Andre’s fear of commitment had more to do with his fear of loss than any innate desire to lead a playboy lifestyle. It was the first time we got to see Andre as someone with substance and depth, and as someone whose smile masks the grief of incredible loss.

 “I miss their hugs. I miss their laughter. I miss their love,” Andre said softly. That’s a sentiment that, unfortunately, all of us can relate to.

It Takes Two

It is worth noting that Karla Mosley was a stellar scene partner. Dani was supportive, compassionate, and loving – and every one of those sentiments could be felt through the screen. Dani’s giving thanks to Andre’s parents really got me. I don’t know exactly what was scripted, but Dani reaching out to hold Andre’s hand as his voice started to crack, and her wiping her eyes of tears when he momentarily looked away were moments that touched me.

This is a soap opera, so we can’t get too sentimental. Remember when I talked about how the Internet loves to craft theories? Well, this week was no different. From what I saw on social media, there are quite a few people that believe Andre’s parents are still alive. Their proof? The simple fact that Andre mentioned that they were dead.

Wanted: Dead or Alive

I don’t think that’s the case, but if I push my bunny aside and allow myself to go down the rabbit hole, I suppose there could be a link between Andre’s MIA status and the possible not-death of his parents. Maybe it isn’t Andre that’s hiding from the bad guys, but rather his parents who are in the Witness Relocation Program.

Ordinarily, I’d say that a back-from-the-dead story is not something that Beyond the Gates would do. However, I could see where a high-profile attorney might end up crossing someone who might want them dead. That is far more realistic than seeing someone who donated their heart come back to life a decade later.

You’ll probably ask, “Why is Andre so emotional if he knows his parents aren’t dead?” That, of course, assumes that his “gap” years coincide with reuniting with them. Realistically, Andre knows that he might not ever be able to see his parents again. So those tears he tried so hard not to cry were real and heartfelt.

Again, I don’t know if that’s where we are headed, but I am trying to be forward thinking and see what future storylines I can come up with for Andre. If he and Dani stay married, having Andre’s parents return is the only thing that I can come up with that doesn’t involve their marriage falling apart.

And I believe more strongly than ever that Dani and Andre will stay together. I can’t be the only one that thought that Andre and Ashley were going to do something stupid when he scurried over to her apartment. I even pre-rolled my eyes in anticipation of them falling into bed together and someone catching them in the act.

Oh, Dubious Dan, go back into your den of doubt. Instead of the expected roll in the hay, Andre declined Ashley’s request to give their relationship another try. Why? “I think I’m falling in love with my wife,” Andre replied.

The Joey Rules: Don’t Get High on Your Own Supply

It wasn’t just Andre who got a little more interesting this week. The already complicated Joey Armstrong became even more of an enigma wrapped in a riddle.

Let’s get this out of the way: Joey Armstrong is trash. He has people killed. He killed poor Doug McBride because he was a roadblock to the romance he wanted with Vanessa. And that doesn’t even take into account all of the terrible things he did to Doug before Vanessa was part of the equation.

It came as quite the shock to me when we learned that Joey and Izaiah are friends (or at least friend adjacent). Back when Izaiah was acting out to rebel against his father, he did “small jobs” for Joey. Joey admitted that his first inclination was to try to have the police chief’s son in his pocket. In the surprise of all surprises, Joey saw something in Izaiah and forced him to go to college far away from the DMV. Joey seemed almost proud of the man that Izaiah has become.

Daddy Mobbucks

The Internet was once again abuzz with theories when Vanessa commented on Joey’s “paternal streak.” The most popular theory seems to be that Joey is actually Izaiah’s dad, not Elon Hawthorne. That would explain the friction between Izaiah and his dad. A less popular theory has Joey having a child somewhere out there. If you recall, back in the summer I suggested that Joey could be Ashley’s father. That idea imploded when Jan and Joey shared a scene and Jan believably claimed that they had never met.

This isn’t the first time that Joey seemed to soften around a college-age male. That sentence reads incredibly dirty, but I promise it’s not. Joey also seemed almost paternal around Donnell McBride. I initially chalked it up to Joey’s guilt over killing Donnell’s dad. Joey even shared his own story of losing a loved one. What if there is more? We know a lot about Joey without really knowing a lot about Joey. Thanks to Izaiah we know that Joey is divorced, and we learned months ago that Joey’s mother died during a cosmetic procedure. That leaves a lot of Joey’s history unwritten.

If ever I get a chance to have a sit-down interview with Beyond the Gates creator Michele Val Jean, I am going to ask her if she had Jon Lindstrom in mind when she created the character of Joey. I cannot imagine anyone else playing Joey and I don’t think that anyone else could have made the character as interesting.

Walk On By

I know that the Ashley/Derek situation was a major story point this week, but so many things about the storyline annoy me and I had to force myself to give it its own section. Derek’s decision to keep quiet about regaining sensation in his legs never seemed like a good decision. Back in September, a wise man said, “It doesn’t seem like a healthy relationship if you have to lie about your health in order to keep your partner.” Ladies and gentlemen, that wise man was me.

I find myself wondering if Ashley would be as angry as she is if she had not been the one who’d been caring for Derek, cooking for him, and bathing him. I don’t think that the whole wedding day “Surprise! I can walk!” plan was ever a good idea, but Ashley really seemed to be upset about running herself ragged to do things for Derek that she didn’t need to be doing. When Ashley spoke of how Derek had lied to her, those were the things that she really hammered home.

Ashley is also on my list. Within minutes of learning that Derek had kept his progress from her, Ashley was on her phone and summing Andre over so that she could try to get back together with him. She did exactly what Derek thought she would do. You know, just with a lot more lying involved. If Ashley was that quick to want another man, she could not have been serious about wanting to marry Derek in the first place. Is that why she didn’t want to set a wedding date? I know that a lot of viewers do not like Ashley, but I don’t mind her. I know people who are very much an Ashley. That said, I kind of loved that Andre rejected her.

I did not expect the Derek and Ashley situation to be another nail in the coffin for Naomi and Jacob’s marriage. Naomi, who has some anger issues of her own, tore into both Derek and Jacob over Derek’s decision to keep quiet about regaining partial use of his legs. It wasn’t Jacob’s tale to tell. Remember when Naomi kept Derek’s secret that she helped him pick out the engagement ring? Faked paralysis and secret rings might not be apples to apples, but a secret is a secret.

Beyond the Gates Speed Round

Here are some of the other things on Beyond the Gates that have me thinking.

Vernon sneaking around

I love that the Beyond the Gates writers are trying so hard to make us believe that Vernon might be having an affair with Sharon. There is no way that Vernon is stepping out on his wife.

Since such a big deal was made out of how bad Anita thinks Vernon’s singing is, I’m guessing that he’s getting secret vocal lessons from Sharon. If you recall, it’s well established that Sharon gives vocal lessons… another bit of proof that the writers are not just making things up as they go.

Where In the World is Carmen SanDiego?

We knew that Vanessa and Diego were having extra special sessions in the country club spa, but what I don’t think we knew until this week was that Diego was working as one of Joey’s escorts. On top of that, we learned that Diego never charged Vanessa for those sessions. It seems that Diego really likes Vanessa, so I guess he didn’t mind that they were freebies.

It will be interesting to see where the storyline goes now that Vanessa is in charge of the escort service. She’s been in charge for less than 24 hours and she’s already making moves. Are we headed for a Heidi Fleiss type of situation where Vanessa gets busted and sent off to jail? Will Vanessa manage to elude detection and use the escort service as a stepping stone to bigger things?

Superspeed Round

I want to know more about this “well-done” cake that Ted made for Nicole.

Dani asking Bill to emcee the Winterfest event was weird. There is no other high-profile person in the DMV that could be asked?

It’s funny that LSD (That’s my nickname for Leslie/Sherry/Dana) was still fussing about June even though June wasn’t even working at Orphey Gene’s on the day that she and Eva dined there.

Kat blowing up at Eva for calling Ted “dad” was a bit much. I’m going to hope she’d have acted better if her day hadn’t already been a heaping pile of doo.

What’s the sound? It’s the Price is Right loser sound

For some unknown reason – I am guessing it’s because there are more days left in the year than there are episode of Beyond the Gates – Beyond the Gates will be preempted on Monday, November 10. The show will be rebroadcasting the episode in which Dani and Andre got married in Las Vegas. At least this go ‘round it’s only a single day of repeats and not an entire week.

Lines of the Week

The Beyond the Gates writing team seems to be having a little too much fun. Here are some of the lines of dialogue that tickled my funny bone or that I found memorable over the past week (and haven’t already mentioned in this column).

“Now you know I’m not the one to get into everybody’s business.” – Shanice, who somehow said this without a lightning bolt striking her.

“I don’t do menages. I do management.” — Vanessa, when Diego mistook her sending him to another woman’s home as an invitation for a little threesome action.

“Only a Dupree would cater a ground.” — Smitty, when Nicole brought over food while Samantha was grounded.

“When you raise a child on your own, you are at war with the world.” — Leslie

“More like hide the pickle. Am I right?” – Vanessa, when Anastasia claimed that she and Diego were meeting up for Pickleball lessons.

“Last week they were up in arms over the hollandaise sauce.” – Vanessa, trying to assuage Joey’s concerns that some of the country club members might be up in arms over their dining together.

“Opera beepbopera rap masterpiece” – Vernon

“I’d much rather hear your photo than rely on my snapshot.” – Dani to Andre

“It’s giving panic. It’s giving deluuuuuuuusion.” — Anita

Follow my Random Acts of Dan

That’s all I have for this week’s My View From Beyond the Gates column. Thank you for reading and, as always, please feel free to share your thoughts on my column or Beyond the Gates in the Comments section below.

If you’ve enjoyed my column this week and want to see what I have written about Beyond the Gates in previous weeks, you can check those out in the My View From Beyond the Gates archive.

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Life outside the gates

Two of my former Two Scoops columnists from Soap Central, Liz Masters and Tamilu, have joined me here on my personal web site — and they are still writing about General Hospital. Tamilu is on deck with week with a new column called, Love, loss, and frozen heads.

To read more thoughts, opinions, rants, and raves about daytime television, be sure to check out our Editorial section.

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